PEG 2.0

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sexartandpolitics: jeffmiller: azspot: bartcop.com Graphs like this are useless … actually, they are worse than useless—they are intentionally deceptive.  The “top tier” varies widely over the years.  At points in our history, the top tier has covered only the Buffets and Gates of the era; now, it covers your doctor and lawyer and boss.  Any useful graph of this nature would define its terms and adjust for inflation.  So much of the blogosphere is filled with stuff like this—stuff that looks like information, but isn’t. UPDATE:  jakke beat me to this, and said it better:  ”In 2010 dollars, in 1960 the top marginal tax rate was on income levels well over $3 million, whereas now the top marginal tax rate kicks in around $370,000.” MOAR TAX BRACKETS PLZ! (That is to say I agree with Jeff; I hate this graph) There’s another nitpick: how did the US grow in the 50s with high income tax brackets. Maybe it had something to do with being the economic superpower of a world ravaged by World War II, and surging demographics, and the deregulation of comming off a war economy. There’s a saying to the effect that “Democrats want the economy of the 50s and Republicans want the society of the 50s.” But the America of the 50s and the world of the 50s was an extremely contingent place to which we’re not going back. The America of the 50s could afford plenty of economically dumb policies like high marginal tax rates and closed shops and, oh yeah, segregation and still grow. It doesn’t mean we should bring back these policies in 2010.

sexartandpolitics:

jeffmiller:

azspot:

bartcop.com

Graphs like this are useless … actually, they are worse than useless—they are intentionally deceptive.  The “top tier” varies widely over the years.  At points in our history, the top tier has covered only the Buffets and Gates of the era; now, it covers your doctor and lawyer and boss.  Any useful graph of this nature would define its terms and adjust for inflation.  So much of the blogosphere is filled with stuff like this—stuff that looks like information, but isn’t.

UPDATE:  jakke beat me to this, and said it better:  ”In 2010 dollars, in 1960 the top marginal tax rate was on income levels well over $3 million, whereas now the top marginal tax rate kicks in around $370,000.”


MOAR TAX BRACKETS PLZ!

(That is to say I agree with Jeff; I hate this graph)

There’s another nitpick: how did the US grow in the 50s with high income tax brackets. Maybe it had something to do with being the economic superpower of a world ravaged by World War II, and surging demographics, and the deregulation of comming off a war economy. There’s a saying to the effect that “Democrats want the economy of the 50s and Republicans want the society of the 50s.” But the America of the 50s and the world of the 50s was an extremely contingent place to which we’re not going back. The America of the 50s could afford plenty of economically dumb policies like high marginal tax rates and closed shops and, oh yeah, segregation and still grow. It doesn’t mean we should bring back these policies in 2010.

Notes about this post from the Tumblr community:

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  5. cespur reblogged this from dnll and added:
    Yeah, seriously. Why the fuck isn’t this shit on billboards.
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  21. noisymime reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    A great example of “lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
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  23. ohtexas reblogged this from iuwaehfoaiuwhefoiaulfjqn and added:
    I just might make a sandwich board today when I slip into class. I might also just print out a whole bunch of these with...
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    There’s another nitpick: how did the US grow in the 50s with high income tax brackets. Maybe it had something to do with...
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